HALIFAX -- Cape Negro, Cape Negro Island, and Negro Harbour in Nova Scotia’s Shelburne County are names that come from history but could be changing in the future.

On Monday, council for the Municipality of Barrington voted unanimously to send a letter asking the Nova Scotia government to speed up the process for changing the names, along with the name of Squaw Island.

The vote came after a presentation from Chuck Smith. Smith is president of the Black Loyalist Heritage Society but spoke on behalf of his own personal experience at the meeting.

"I talked about Cape Negro, and how it made me feel," Smith said. "Negro is not far from the other n-word."

He says he recognizes the names are historic, believed to have been given by Samuel de Champlain, who wrote about them in 1604.

But Smith believes recognizing the term as derogatory, and changing the place names, is long overdue.

"Changing the name because of the respect to those people who were part of the community at one time, is to me, a good reason to change the name," he said.

The warden and the deputy warden of the Municipality of Barrington couldn’t be reached for interviews today.

But, during Monday's meeting, District 3 Councilor Shaun Hatfield demonstrated his support.

"The terms that my ancestors would have used, for other races of people, were pejorative and wrong," he said.

It’s the province that has the power to change place names, following federal guidelines established by the Geographical Names Board of Canada.

The process began after an initial complaint about the names several years ago was made to council.

When the province stepped in, public consultations were then delayed. Then, the pandemic happened.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson with the provincial government, Susan McKeage, said in an email to CTV News that GeoNova has received two applications asking to have the derogatory names changed.

She went on to write that the province’s approach for public consultations had to change because of COVID-19, and the decision was made to use a direct mailout to residents, a survey and a new website instead. McKeage says the mailouts have not yet begun, and she expects the consultation process to take several months.

Smith says it would still be important to share the stories of Black Nova Scotians in the area. He says changing the names, wouldn’t erase history, but rather help move the community forward.